OLDaily

Presentation
Bruno de Pierro Interview
Stephen Downes, May 17, 2020, ,

I received a request for responses to some questions in my email. The questions were quite involved and it would take me quite a while to type answers. But also, in relation to a work-related question, I had been looking at AI-based transcription. And also, my new Audio-Technica microphone arrived today. So as an experiment, I used Otter.ai to transcribe by answer. I was speaking off the top of my head, without notes. Below is the unedited transcript, preserved exactly as converted by the AI, for science. And here is the link to the original audio, also unedited.

[Audio]

The Resilience Network Manifesto
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 2020/05/18

Michael Feldstein is pushing hard to see the creation of a resilience network to shape the higher education institutional response to the ongoing crisis. "All of those crazy predictions of 25% or 50% of colleges going out of business are suddenly a lot more plausible," he warns. Against that, he says, while a lot has been done, "all of these efforts amount to a drop in the bucket relative to the current need." His response is a resilience network as "something like a hashtag and something like a potluck dinner" - in other words, "discoverable resources that are tagged with something that has semantic weight" in addition to "some lightweight collaboration." He suggests some technological approaches to curation - a crawler, say, or a "a large-scale but porous collaboration space." While I am sympathetic with his ambition, I would counter that we (worldwide, not just in the U.S.) already have a resiliance network. What we lack - and have always lacked - is an institutional will to use it. To open up, to use the web, not some platform, to cooperate, not centralize, to share, not hide behind institutional paywalls. An Apereo-led institutional response won't change that. Image: Scholarly Networks on Resilience...

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

30+ COVID-Inspired Predictions About Education One Year from Today
Bernard Bull, Etale, 2020/05/18

While at once denying he is predicting the future Bernard Bull offers here a set of precisely state projections describing what to expect. I appreciate the precision; I find more value in a projection that says "the number of families opting for homeschooling will increase from 3% to 6%", even if it turns out to be wrong, that I do a hand-waving reference to some unstated alternative to classrooms. Such projections give us possibilities we can entertain and prompt us to ask for specific evidence one way or another; for example, when we say "undergraduate residential enrollment will be 10-15% below pre-COVID budgeted projection," now we look for signs that might raise or lower that number. If we see more blog posts, news articles, podcasts, etc. on a subject, activity in the field usually follows. I think the projections here are conservative, but I wouldn't doubt the directionality of any of them.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

How to Keep Zoom Classes Secure and Private
TeachOnline.ca, Contact North, 2020/05/18

Zoom is really simple to use but really complex pbehind the scenes. It was designed for enterprise use, with the expectation that privacy setting would be managed by system administrators. But as we've all seen, it became very popular for online use by individuals, and it was not well-suited for that, from a privacy perspective. Zoom has made sdome improvements, but users still need to attend to privacy issues. That's what this article is about. Here's the advice: keep the app updated. Use a new random meeting ID for each meeting. Use a meeting password. And if you feel the need, you can enable the waiting room, so you can screen people as they join. You can also lock your meeting, disable screen sharing, and disable chat.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Move to Online Learning: 12 Key Ideas
Dave Cormier, Dave’s Educational Blog, 2020/05/18

This is a good common-sense set of lessons learned offered by Dave Cormier after two months helping more than 100 faculty at his institution move online and through 16 episodes of his Online Learning in a Hurry webcast. The tech, for example, is not a problem unless you make it one; "Just set aside enough time over successive days to use the tech repeatedly and it will come to you." Also, "your students already have access to all of the precious information you were planning to give them in class." So, "add some complexity. Something that personalizes the issue to the student." What's important? Things like care and online presence. Keeping it engaging. And telling them "why they need to do what you’re talking to them about."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Typology of Free Web-based Learning Technologies
Matt Bower, Jodie Torrington, EDUCAUSE, 2020/05/18

You'll notice a lot of overlap between this typology (15 page PDF) and my own Quick Guide because the selection criteria for each are virtually identical - free tools, web-based access, educational application. In fact, I'm going to go back and review my own list in light of this list, to make sure I haven't missed anything significant. The Educause list, meanwhile, is an update on a 2015 list by one of the same authors.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Use of Remote Lab for Online and Real time Practicum At Vocational School in Indonesia
Hendra Jaya, Sapto Haryoko, Lumu Taris, Putri Ida, nternational Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering, 2020/05/18

Practical lab experience can be supported with online delivery, but students may face a series of obstacles that make it far from ideal, ranging from a shortage of online facilities to a shortage of materials for lab-based projects. This paper (11 page PDF) looks a lab activities at two vocational schools in Makassar, Indonesia, and documents these issues. On the other had, in-=person labs have limitations as well, according to the authors. " One piece of equipment is practiced by 4-5 students so that the completion of the practicum does not run objectively because only one person works and the others only watch, also in a conventional laboratory only intelligent students only can practice well." In the online lab, by contrast, the teachers watch each student perform the lab one by one.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Innovative (Learn) STEM education in Lithuania: Experiences from implementations
Alma Rimkevičė, Learn STEM Online Conference, 2020/05/18

This is a set of slides from a presentation at the recent Learn STEM online conferemce. It describes the use of the Learn STEM pedagogical model in a Lithuanian school. The process is centered on the learner and encourages them to discover, explore, reflect and share. "This programme encourages learners to explore the world outside the classroom, to find a field of interest, to decide on the problem that might be interesting to examine, to apply previous knowledge as well as to look for new ways so as to solve it, to share the results with others, get feedback and proceed." It appeals to me because this is the way I do most of my learning, and reminds me of some of the happier projects I undertook in school when I was young.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]